In one of San Francisco's many legendary long-agos - in this case, the early '70s - strumpet/activist Margo St. James created a prostitutes' rights advocacy group called COYOTE, or, Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics. Its annual Hookers Ball offered all the hideous makeup and feather-boa overdo of the age - great fun. As, perhaps, a summation of the times, his appearance with St. James at the festivities cost one SFPD chief his job.

COYOTE's still around today, still agitating, albeit in more somber, sober approaches, as the city's dim post-AIDs, post-Yuppie era grinds on. And I feel like sending them a contribution after learning today that crusading jackass prosecutors and whisper-campaign bluenoses have finally forced Craigslist to dump its erotic services ads.

No. I don't shop for blow jobs online. That's not the point. This is yet another nail in the coffin of an open, freewheeling internet. No matter where you stand on this issue, anytime any element of our magic box is yanked because of moral, political or social pan-banging, all who surf the web without glancing over their shoulders should be chilled.

If I did want a good whippin', tied upside down with Brent Scowcroft's sock in my mouth, why can't I shop Craigslist for the leather-strapped expert I need for the job? I'm an adult, after all (most of the time), and from everything I've read in Reader's Digest and the Weekly Standard, we adults are free to make decisions on our own, without self-appointed stern grannies hovering to whack us with rulers should our thoughts stroll down Horney Road.

All this came in the wake of the horrific crimewave apparently committed by a homicidal thief police tabbed the "Craigslist Killer" since he may have cased his victims through the online service.

So... one horrendous string of crimes, and we all pay? Does that make sense? Drunk drivers provoke terrible crashes. Do we shut down the freeways? (Actually, here in California, rush-hour traffic accomplishes that feat just fine, thank you very much.)

One of the loudmouths leading this yappy charge is New York's usually praiseworthy Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo. Evidently, chasing down the mind-bogglingly complicated looting of public pension funds across the country is just not enough on his plate. No. He's gotta go after free "hey, sailor" ads in the worldwide web's panty corner. And it's not enough the site is shuttering this sideline; Cuomo wants the IP addresses of organized prostitution rings and... maybe?... johns? Like who, Mo? Your predecessor?

We're run haggard by war and national penury. And we must suffer, on top of that, chest-beating, hypocritical gas-bags making political capital out of these cheap-shot moral crusades?

COYOTE! Start howling!